I attempted to surprise my dh and ds in 2000....dd was a tiny baby, so was in on the surprise with me!
I planned a trip "to the beach" for the last week of Aug. which was our traditional beach week because that's when the rates at our favorite hotel there go down and its not crowded because of kids going back to school. That's how I got dh to take time off from work. I told him we got a great deal so we could stay 5 nights instead of 3...and to take the whole week off. He did.
I had really made reservations for us at All Star Music for 3 nights...planned to get length of stay passes and drive down and back. I also planned to get a night off property at the beginning of our trip to get the most out of our stay...check in early and hit the parks our first day in Disney! I had planned to offer to drive, or let dh drive since it was his habit whenever heading south to say "let's just keep going...." I was either just going to skip the exit to the beach and say "I guess we'll just keep going..." or I was going to give him the response of "okay...we might as well....we have reservations at WDW!" I do fear that might have caused an accident!
But, as it happened, dh was getting very down and sad....he missed WDW, he said. So I caved.....I said "I have a surprise for you....do you want it now or when we go on vacation?" He said he wanted it right away....so I pulled out our reservation confirmation for Disney. He was very happy. Of course, a week later we got a postcard offering an incredible rate at any deluxe resort (I think it was $169 standard)....so I called him at work and we agreed to switch our stay to the Polynesian. I used priceline and got us a room for our first night at the Wyndham Palace for only $40. And then we got an even bigger surprise...a family member sent us a very large cash gift. We had been talking about joining DVC in the future....and all of a sudden we could do it! So I rented points from someone here on the DIS for a night at OKW to try it out!
Anyway, back to the surprise.....when I told dh, we decided to go ahead and surprise our ds (who was 5yo at the time....) We told him nothing...though he got slightly suspicious when he overheard me on the phone one day...he said "Are we going to Disney? I heard you say Yacht and Beach Club?" I told him it was for something at the beach! LOL.
So, our trip rolled around....we planned our departure for whenever the baby took her afternoon nap. Then we hit the road. About 3 hours into the drive, ds began complaining....really complaining about the drive. So dh thought this would be a good time to tell him..."What would you say if I told you we were going to Disney World?" Ds complained some more....he didn't want to drive that far, he wanted to go to the beach, etc, etc...... So anyway...our surprise kind of flopped. I think it took him the rest of the drive for it to completely sink in. After a long 22 hour drive (mainly because of the baby....) we finally arrived at WDW!
Ds was very funny though....when we arrived at the Wyndham we went to the pool. Another boy was there telling him about how much fun he was having in WDW. Logan (ds) told him that we weren't in the "real Disney World" yet....I had to assure ds that his new friend had indeed gone to "the real Disney World" LOL. The surprise thing just totally confused him!
We ended up joining DVC that evening....and had such a great trip that we added yet another night to our visit...at Caribbean Beach (nothing available on points...lol). So we surprised our ds and spent 6 nights at WDW in 4 different hotels! It was quite a whirlwind trip!
Oh, sorry for the russian novel! That was just such a fun trip....and even though our surprises weren't a big success, the trip was!
I planned a trip "to the beach" for the last week of Aug. which was our traditional beach week because that's when the rates at our favorite hotel there go down and its not crowded because of kids going back to school. That's how I got dh to take time off from work. I told him we got a great deal so we could stay 5 nights instead of 3...and to take the whole week off. He did.
I had really made reservations for us at All Star Music for 3 nights...planned to get length of stay passes and drive down and back. I also planned to get a night off property at the beginning of our trip to get the most out of our stay...check in early and hit the parks our first day in Disney! I had planned to offer to drive, or let dh drive since it was his habit whenever heading south to say "let's just keep going...." I was either just going to skip the exit to the beach and say "I guess we'll just keep going..." or I was going to give him the response of "okay...we might as well....we have reservations at WDW!" I do fear that might have caused an accident!
But, as it happened, dh was getting very down and sad....he missed WDW, he said. So I caved.....I said "I have a surprise for you....do you want it now or when we go on vacation?" He said he wanted it right away....so I pulled out our reservation confirmation for Disney. He was very happy. Of course, a week later we got a postcard offering an incredible rate at any deluxe resort (I think it was $169 standard)....so I called him at work and we agreed to switch our stay to the Polynesian. I used priceline and got us a room for our first night at the Wyndham Palace for only $40. And then we got an even bigger surprise...a family member sent us a very large cash gift. We had been talking about joining DVC in the future....and all of a sudden we could do it! So I rented points from someone here on the DIS for a night at OKW to try it out!
Anyway, back to the surprise.....when I told dh, we decided to go ahead and surprise our ds (who was 5yo at the time....) We told him nothing...though he got slightly suspicious when he overheard me on the phone one day...he said "Are we going to Disney? I heard you say Yacht and Beach Club?" I told him it was for something at the beach! LOL.
So, our trip rolled around....we planned our departure for whenever the baby took her afternoon nap. Then we hit the road. About 3 hours into the drive, ds began complaining....really complaining about the drive. So dh thought this would be a good time to tell him..."What would you say if I told you we were going to Disney World?" Ds complained some more....he didn't want to drive that far, he wanted to go to the beach, etc, etc...... So anyway...our surprise kind of flopped. I think it took him the rest of the drive for it to completely sink in. After a long 22 hour drive (mainly because of the baby....) we finally arrived at WDW!
Ds was very funny though....when we arrived at the Wyndham we went to the pool. Another boy was there telling him about how much fun he was having in WDW. Logan (ds) told him that we weren't in the "real Disney World" yet....I had to assure ds that his new friend had indeed gone to "the real Disney World" LOL. The surprise thing just totally confused him!
We ended up joining DVC that evening....and had such a great trip that we added yet another night to our visit...at Caribbean Beach (nothing available on points...lol). So we surprised our ds and spent 6 nights at WDW in 4 different hotels! It was quite a whirlwind trip!
Oh, sorry for the russian novel! That was just such a fun trip....and even though our surprises weren't a big success, the trip was!
